Do snakes sleep?

Guest

Very interesting article:

http://snakesarelong.blogspot.de/2015/08/do-snakes-sleep.html?m=1

Niko good question, i actually dont know yet it seems to me that after a meal their biological frequency lowers as does in hibernation and if you ever observed one in this state they appear to be in a form of stupor.
Albert.

Quote :: that after a meal their biological frequency lowers as does in hibernation

the fact that they do almost not move does not indicate that they "lower their bilogical frequencies - actually the contrary happens.
Digesting a nice piece of prey is quite an effort and won't work with lowered frequencies.

Guest

Gentlemen,

Interesting point of view! I think that we are not ready to understand the reptile brain.we are focused on human sleep, with REM phase, dreaming sequences. Thats what we think about when we are talking about slow wave sleep phase.Talking about the definition of sleep tend to focus on physical inactivity with regular cycles and a return to activity when roused.Perhaps the reptile is going on "stand-by" , with muscle relaxation ?Marine mammals such as dolphins and whales have the ability to sleep with only one-half of their brain at a time. The other half of their brain remains awake so that they can swim while sleeping.
Anybody observed here the phenomenon of a "sleeping" snake?

Good point Peter thats why i wrote i dont know yet it seems to me that the snakes system does indeed seem to go in a sort of stupor or " stand by " then the complex stomach acids and in the case of venomous snakes venom provide for the digestion and breaking down passively of the meal if and when they need to expell feces they seem to awake and create some movements towards that end.
Niko's explanation was the intent of my observation , two very good points , thank you for your enlightment.

Hi all,

Bird's brain acts like Niko wrote about whales and cie. Half awake, half sleep.
I think perhaps the same situation can occurs with Reptiles...
Everybody certainly noticed the short time a resting snake can take between a stimulus and the first eye sign or tongue flicking...it's like if they were sleeping. The fact that they haven't any opaque eyelid probably let us hesitate if they are immediatly aware or not about what is happening around them. Hope you understand what i mean.
Anyway that's a interesting question.

Thanks for sharing!

Regards

Fred

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